CRP and atrial fibrillation: Since sVCAM-1 is an inflammatory biomarker and has been linked to atherosclerotic disease21 and as CAD is a known risk factor associated with AF,1 we performed a sensitivity analysis further adjusting for a selected panel of other more general inflammatory biomarkers (CRP, leukocytes, TNF, and IL-6) and conducted a sensitivity analysis with CAD as a competing event, to ensure that our results were not entirely driven by inflammation associated with CAD, or through shared pathways with the panel of inflammatory biomarkers.